Sent to me by one of my faithful correspondents, an article in the NY Times about whether the egg cream can make a comeback.

My comments about the article (and note those from a person as devoted to the well-made egg cream as he is to the works of Leonardo da Vinci and Albert Einstein).

1. The egg cream has never died2. If ever I ordered an egg cream and it looked like the thing in the photo in that article I would either (a) shoot the person who made it, (b) commit hara-kiri or (c) notify the FBI3. A true egg cream is not made from a seltzer bottle!! It is made from a soda fountain dispenser, first the chocolate, then the milk and then a slow steady stream of soda from the fountain and finally a fine rapid stream from the fountain. 3. An egg cream by definition is made with chocolate syrup (ideally Fox's UBet). A vanilla egg cream is acceptable in some parts of the world but one flavored with strawberry, raspberry, mint or anything else is explicitly forbidden in the Old Testament, the New Testament and the American Declaration of Independence. 4. Whether the best egg creams are made in Brooklyn or The Bronx is open to debate but no city in the world dares claim "the best" egg cream.

This article - as well as your post - brings back fond memories, but also makes me feel old. My mother taught me the wonders of the egg cream, and I would routinely detour my wanderings around New York as a kid, to pass by the place that made the best egg cream.

It has been a long while since I lived in the NY area, and thus a long while since I have had one of these delicacies. For some reason, people outside NYC do not seem to appreciate the wonders of the egg cream and I could never convince anyone to enjoy one with me. But perhaps that is because it is impossible to get a correctly prepared one in other parts of the US.

And, yes, I shudder at the mere thought of something called a strawberry egg cream. What the hell is that? (And that picture might be of something drinkable, but it resembles no egg cream I ever saw or drank.

For the record, the best egg creams in the known universe (and very possibly in parts of the yet unknown universe) were the ones dished up many years ago at Raleigh and Peggy's Candy Store on 13th Avenue in Boro Park (between 52nd and 53rd Streets). Half the fun was drinking the egg creams, the other half in "swiping" the penny royal candies that were always left on the counter.

Years later Raleigh told me that he always knew we were swipping those penny royals but let us "get away with it" because we were nice kids and he too pleasure in our "forbidden fruits".

By the way - try to explain to people who did not grow up in New York City that a "candy store" was not really a candy store. It always had a soda fountain, served not only egg creams but all kinds of ice cream concoctions, sandwiches and sometimes soup. More than that, a large section devoted to newspapers, magazines and comic books, another section devoted to small children's toys (balloons were often a specialty), a selection of greeting cards, party favors and items of decor and, of course cigarettes which would be sold to you no matter what your age so long as you said "my mother said she wanted.....".